War Journalism and Vietnam Veterans

Abstract

Occurring as a major conflict of the Cold War, the Vietnam War is perhaps the most memorable modern war in the nation’s memory. This project has goals to study the interactions between press and the soldiers of this war, to understand the impact of the press during this time. The question leading this project is “Did the war journalism in Vietnam have an impact on the morale of American soldiers?” To investigate this, the researcher conducted surveys, interviews, and watched past CSPAN interviews to collect both broad and detailed data based on questions that would inquire into their interactions with press overall. The researcher found that overall, the morale of soldiers during the time were unaffected by the press. However, the number of people interviewed along with the amount of data gathered from the recorded interviews may have not been sufficient to accurately draw such a conclusion. These results allow for an understanding of the new form of television and radio press during the war, as well as a way to draw connections between the press of this war and others in terms of interactions of press.